Nightcap:5/3/15 The Tribeca wrap up, plus Randi's links

There is this sadness to covering a festival. For the weeks leading up to something like Tribeca its constant contact with people connected to the festival and the films and then suddenly - nothing.

The tents are struck, the band has left and there is nothing but the remnants and the memories. When you're in the thick of things it's like going from 150 mph to hitting a brick wall. A depression hits and a sadness creeps in.

From a readership stand point, once the final couple days of the festival hit readership falls off as everyone moves on to the next thing. You realize how much film fans want to get to the next big thing. With Tribeca done everyone has moved on to Hot Docs or Montclair or whatever.

For me there is a sadness- I like the hustle and bustle. I like being in the thick of things and I hate it when it goes away. But I know its going to happen. I know it's going to cycle. I know I just have to wait for the next big thing and wait for it to crest...the trick is dealing with the god awful waiting...

Tribeca is over and our coverage is largely over so now it's time to reflect.

First off I want to thank Hubert for wading in to the fracas with me. It wouldn’t have worked without you. I also want to say that  it wasn't the same without Mondo and Chocko, one who had to deal with life and the other I just missed.

Ultimately I had a great time, I made some new friends and did some cool things.

If I'm doing this again next year I really have to consider what I'm going to do. I say that because the majority of the festival and the two and a half weeks before it involved 19 hour days and very little sleep. The sleep deprivation broke me and I'm not sure the 90 features plus other things was worth it.

But that's my problem. I'm the moron who decided to see as much as humanly possible- just to see what happens and what was possible.

This year the most amazing thing about the festival was that none of the films I saw were complete and utter dogs. Seriously as much as I dislike some films, there are none I hate enough to rant about for hours and hours.. Yea things like MOJAVE were bad, but they had good stuff in it. Even near dogs like SHUT UP AND DRIVE, GOOD KILL and MEN GO TO BATTLE had performances and moments that worked.

As always it was great to talk with the staff. Exchanging notes with all of the people was great and they steered me to a couple of films I might not have seen otherwise. Don't kid yourself, one of the reasons I go to the festival are the volunteers and I cherish them all.

This year I got to really know one of Chocko's friends Ariel who who was a volunteer who at times seemed to be everywhere. I'm hoping to get her on board with some reviews of the films she saw including some that eluded Hubert and myself.

I also got to know the lovely and charming Lesley Coffin of the Mary Sue and elsewhere. I had a blast talking and arguing with her almost every day of the festival. And assuming I haven’t messed things up earlier today I‘ve talked her doing some stuff for us as well. (Look for an interview with Gil Bellows on Tuesday).  Lesley is truly someone special and I am lucky to now call her friend and to have her as part of the Unseen family.

I can't lie but there was a downside to the festival this year that hopefully they can work out for next year- namely the locations are too spread out and in the case of the Regal Cinemas very out of the way. I have yet to meet anyone who said they liked the arrangement. While the locations are fine once you get there, the trick was getting there or going between them.

I understand that the festival is named after its location,Tribeca, and should be in Tribeca but the Regal Cinemas are a good walk from the subway. I have been told by any number of festival goers that parking around it is nigh impossible. Additionally if you are going from there to Spring Studios or 23rd street where the Bow Tie Cinema (main location for the previous 5 years) and SVA Theaters are you're talking about at least a 30 minutes travel time. (I won’t get into the press lounge being at Spring Studio other than to say why would you put the place for the press to rest 25 minutes away from where all the press events are happening?) Its a minor bitch in an otherwise good year.

Over all this was a really cool year. I got to see Riff Trax live, was inches from Monty Python (or in the case of John Cleese crashed into him), I met Kevin Pollak, had a great chat about a historic horse race, made some new friends, connected with old ones. I had such a good time that when I finally finish transcribing the interviews I think I’ll be looking forward to next year.

I want to thank Tammie Rosen and the other people at Tribeca for letting me attend and be part of the madness.

And now time to sigh deeply and go to bed.
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And now as always-Randi's links:

Brontosaurus makes a comeback
Help Bill Plymptons REVENGEANCE get made
being overweight reduces chances of dementia
The Scream and Pink Floyd
Action figues
Greatest movie song?
Aliens are here
Rosebud
Cult of THE ROOM
Pornographic medical book?
Man eating snakes
Francis Bacon paintings surface
Celebrity interviews gone bad
Spaulding Gray's catastrophe
NY's Carnegie Deli in seep trouble
Ruined Beauty

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This week we move away from the wave of new films that we saw at Tribeca with palette cleanse looks at the first five Bowery Boy films. However mixed in with that look for some new releases, some interviews, including Lesley Coffin's first piece for Unseen, a talk with Gil Bellows and some other stuff.

Time to pack up the Tribeca Trailer and go home